In a bid to promote sports in the capital, Delhi government has decided to allocate funds “liberally” and has doubled cash incentives for players winning medals in international, national and state-level tournaments in all sports.

Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung, on Sunday, said allocation of funds will be doubled this year and will further be increased in coming years. He also directed the Department of Education (DoE) to prepare a “vision” and a strategy to promote sports at a mass level across the city and to produce champions in every game.

“Delhi government has doubled cash incentives to players who bring laurels to the country in various tournaments, including Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, world championships etc. Besides this, incentives will be provided to medal winners in national, state and zonal-level tournaments, varying from Rs 2,000 for zonal-level medal winners to Rs 1 crore for sportspersons who win gold medals in the Olympics,” a statement issued by DoE said. The government has also decided to give cash incentives to coaches of winning sportspersons.

Jung also said the sports infrastructure, created in the capital for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is being utilised to promote sports.

According to the statement, the DoE is also working on a three-fold vision — grooming and nurturing talented players, identifying talented upcoming student players and broad-basing of sports at mass level.

It further said that the government has started providing funds at the grassroots level for promoting sports. DoE has also made plans to provide world-class sports infrastructure in its schools in a phased manner. “For the first phase, around 80 government schools have been picked,” it said.